Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Effecting or designed to effect an improvement; remedial.
  • adjective Favorable to health; wholesome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Wholesome; healthful; healing.
  • Promotive of or contributing to some beneficial purpose; beneficial; profitable.
  • Synonyms Salubrious, etc. See healthy.
  • Useful, advantageous, favorable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wholesome; healthful; promoting health.
  • adjective Promotive of, or contributing to, some beneficial purpose; beneficial; advantageous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Effecting or designed to effect an improvement; remedial: salutary advice.
  • adjective Promoting good health; wholesome; curative.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective tending to promote physical well-being; beneficial to health

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English saluter, from Old French salutaire, from Latin salūtāris, from salūs, salūt-, health; see sol- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French salutaire and its source, Latin salutaris ("healthful"), from salus ("health").

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Examples

  • It was there, in the moments after 9/11, that Bush truly decided on war, maybe because Saddam had once tried to kill George H.W. Bush, maybe because the neocons had convinced him that a brief war in Iraq would have long-term salutary consequences for the entire Middle East, maybe because he could not abide the thought that a monster like Saddam might die in his sleep -- and maybe because he heard destiny calling.

    WaPo's Richard Cohen: Bush Is A "Sentimental Softie" And A "Neo-Liberal" 2009

  • While government intervention often has a short-term salutary effect, making it irresistible to politicians, in the end all governments—including our own—have had to conclude that more fundamental solutions are needed to attack the root of the problem, not just the symptoms.

    Bush speaks. Ann Althouse 2008

  • That had a certain salutary effect on the other nations and I hope it does not disturb you if I say that the break up of the empire by the United States led directly to the next sequence in the story: the break-away of another overseas colony or community, or communities.

    India In The Commonwealth 1966

  • How delightful and salutary is the morning hour under such an advantage?

    Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert, Formerly Ann Taylor 1874

  • "CBN has also undertaken initiatives that it hopes will have a medium to long term salutary effect on the nigerian economy.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2010

  • Several pages of this book recall the salutary rigour of the Dragonades; and that odious passage, in which a man distinguished for his talents and his private virtues, the Count de Maistre (Soirees de St. Petersbourg tome 2 page 121) justifies the Inquisition of Portugal “which he observes has only caused some drops of guilty blood to flow.”

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • Nor let us believe, with the dupes, of a shallow policy, that there exists upon the earth one prejudice that can be called salutary or one error beneficial to perpetrate.

    The Disowned — Volume 06 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Nor let us believe, with the dupes, of a shallow policy, that there exists upon the earth one prejudice that can be called salutary or one error beneficial to perpetrate.

    The Disowned — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Several pages of this book recall the salutary rigour of the Dragonades; and that odious passage, in which a man distinguished for his talents and his private virtues, the Count de Maistre (Soirees de St. Petersbourg tome 2 page 121) justifies the Inquisition of

    Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3 Alexander von Humboldt 1814

  • No desire is entertained to justify all the zeal and all the means which are employed to prevent the free exercise of the human mind, in its researches after divine knowledge, and to retard the influx of that light which would prove unfavourable to doctrines which have little more than prescription for their support; but it seems reasonable to make a proper distinction between what may be called a salutary principle in the human mind, and a wrong application or an erroneous indulgence of it.

    A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine Revelation Hosea Ballou 1811

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